Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Friday, July 28, 2006

Lessons from Katyushas

Lessons Of The Katyushas

By: Steven PlautPeople have very short memories. Most Israelis do not recall theevents that have led up to the rain of Katyushas and other missilesupon Israeli civilians these past two weeks.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to drive out the terrorists. Itthen continued to hold southern Lebanon as a buffer zone, to keep theterrorists away from the border, in alliance with the South LebanonArmy (SLA) militia, until the Israeli government under Ehud Barakordered the area turned over to the Hizbullah in exchange for…nothing.

In the late 1990's, some Israelis, led by the Labor Party, beganto turn against the government as Israeli deaths continued to mount inthe war of attrition in southern Lebanon between the IDF and theterrorists. Meanwhile, the Israeli Left had undergone a process ofradicalization, in large part because of Lebanon.

What began as mere disagreement by the Left over tactical issuesin what had been regarded as an essentially just occupation of southLebanon morphed into an outburst of openly anti-Israel extremism.Inevitably, the Labor Party joined the far left in demanding anunconditional capitulation by Israel in Lebanon.

It was Labor prime minister Barak who in the summer of 2000implemented the unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli troops fromLebanon. The withdrawing Israeli army abandoned the fighters of theSouth Lebanese Army and their families to the mercies of Hizbullah.Many SLA members were murdered.

Barak's withdrawal took place under fire, with Hizbullah andothers shooting at the retreating Israeli troops to demonstrate theircontempt and show the world that the cowardly Jews were being drivenout.

Barak's capitulation was a parody of Dunkirk. But the Israelichattering classes saw it as not only a great victory but as aprecedent for solving all the problems of Gaza and West Bank.

This writer, like many others, predicted for years that northernIsrael would be attacked by masses of missiles and that Israel wouldbe forced to invade and re-conquer south Lebanon, at a large cost inIsraeli lives, to drive out the terrorists Barak had installed there.

I also warned that when that happened, no southern LebaneseChristian or Muslim, remembering how Israel had betrayed the SLA,would believe any promises made by Israeli leaders. As a result,Israel would have trouble finding local allies and informants.

It occurs to me that now would be as good a time as any to sumup everything that has been learned in the past few weeks about theMiddle East conflict – that is, everything the Israeli government andchattering classes refused to learn during the past two decades.

Here are 40 lessons from the Katyusha war on the Jews:

1. Nice fences do not stop missiles, rockets, and mortars.2. Complete removal of Israeli forces and Jewish settlers froman area merely signals Israeli weakness and invites escalated Arabterror and aggression.3. Hizbullah and Hamas cannot be defeated with air strikes.There is no effective alternative to ground invasion and ongoingIsraeli military control of the ground.4. Unless the Israeli military controls the ground on the otherside of fences, those fences achieve nothing.5. Goodwill gestures by Israel increase terror.6. Goodwill gestures by Israel never produce moderation of Arabgoals and demands, but rather the opposite.7. Terror is not caused by settlements but by the removal of settlements.8. Terror is not caused by Israeli military occupation but bythe removal of Israeli military occupation.9. It is impossible for two sovereign entities to exist betweenthe Jordan River and the Mediterranean.10. No matter how many concessions Israel makes the world willalways justify Arab terrorism because there will always be still onemore capitulation Israel fails to make.11. No matter how nice Israel is to its Arab citizens and no matterhow many affirmative action programs it implements, Israel will alwaysbe accused of being an "apartheid regime."12. The Israeli far left is an openly anti-Semitic movement thatseeks Israel's destruction and automatically endorses the enemies ofIsrael in nearly all things.13. The Israeli Labor Party and its Kadima cousin may be moreeffective at fighting terror, once they decide to do so, than Likud.If it were a Likud government fighting Hizbullah, the Israeli Leftwould take to the streets in mass demonstrations against Israeli"imperialism and war crimes" and the Israeli media would declare thathalf a million protesters had turned out.14. The real enemy of Israel is not Arab fascism but Jewish leftism.15. Much of the world has no qualms seeing Jewish civilians murderedby terrorists.16. The Israeli Left will oppose every conceivable act of Israeliself-defense.17. Israeli niceness and flexibility fan anti-Semitism.18. Arab terrorists do not morph into statesmen.19. Israel bashers do not care about dead Arab civilians, other thanas a useful tool with which to bludgeon Israel.20. Many on the worldwide Left would not raise an eyebrow if IsraeliJews were shipped off to concentration camps in cattle cars – exceptperhaps to demand improved rail service.21. The vast majority of Israeli Arabs and nearly all Israeli Arabpoliticians support terrorism and wish to see Israel destroyed.22. There are hundreds of Jewish professors in Israel who serve asan academic Fifth Column and who collaborate with the enemies of theircountry.23. The Arabs will not accept an independent Israel within any setof borders, no matter how small. Hence reducing Israel's territorydoes nothing but signal weakness and destructibility.24. The only country on earth expected to respond to the mass murderof its civilians by turning of the other cheek is Israel. The onlycountry on earth that has spent years trying to defeat aggression andterrorism by turning the other cheek is Israel.25. No matter how Israel responds to aggression and terrorism, itwill always be seen in many quarters as a "disproportionate" response.The only "proportionate" response is complete capitulation.26. Those who claim that anti-Zionism is different and distinct fromanti-Semitism tend, on close inspection, to be anti-Semitesthemselves.27. The only people on earth whom the Left believes should be deniedthe right to self-determination and self-defense are the Jews.28. "Palestinians" are not a nation in any true sense of the termand never were. They are simply Arabs who happened to migrate toWestern Palestine. They have no "right" to statehood.29. Israeli leftists, rather than learn from the failures of theirpolicies and "ideas," complain that their policies are not appliedthoroughly enough.30. The moral and legal responsibility for every single Arabcivilian killed or injured in the Middle East conflict rests squarelyon the shoulders of the Arab terrorists.31. There is no moral or legal reason for Israel to refrain fromattacking terrorists and murderers when they hide among civilians.32. Too many of the "anarchists" and others who protest againstIsrael's security wall want the wall removed because they wantterrorists to murder Jewish civilians.33. Palestinians are the Sudeten Germans of the Middle East.34. There are no non-military solutions to the problem of terrorism.35. One can only make warwith one's enemies. One can only make peacewith one's defeated enemies.36. There are no significant differences between the agenda of thePLO and the agenda of Hamas and Hizbullah.37. One cannot make peace by pretending that war does not exist.38. One cannot buy off anti-Semites and Islamofascists with tradeconcessions and subsidies.39. The only way to stop terrorism is to kill terrorists.40. No terrorist has ever murdered anyone after he was executed.